Prepare to face a new set of challenges in this brand-new Pokemon world as you square off against new enemies and rivals, forge new friendships, and create teams to travel the world with on your quest of discovery

Lucky for Kye, she did indeed have a home. It was right where she had said it would be; straight through the really-dark-compensating-for something forest. She had a den plunked right underneath a stack of colorless rocks in the middle of a colorless cavern containing a seemingly infinite collection of colorless AND dubious ancient ruins, all located conveniently behind a colorless waterfall surrounded by a colorless clearing full of large shelves of colorless rock, colorless trees with a canopy so thick they only allowed thin streamers of light to trickle their way in during the day, and a colorless lake fed by the colorless waterfall. Even the rainbow on the prismic spray generated by the churning waters was colorless. In short: it was everything Kye had asked for in a place for his colorless ass to live. A place where even he could lose himself in the scenery if he wasn't careful. They had only had to navigate a forest full of creatures to get there, but also luckily for Kye Merc had shortcuts.

Mercury had felt... off ever since she and Kye had found their way to her den from that gross place full of purple unhappiness. That wasn't to say that she hadn't been bursting at the seams when she had introduced Kye to her cave-y home of wonder, or when she made him a bed and they performed the official welcome-home ceremony (food and games; that was basically it. Merc had imagined that she was a pirate. Then she acted out a violent acquisition of the King's crown trader ships with various doodads from her ever-growing pile of shiny things, forcing the royal traders to either join her or have a viking-style burial at sea aboard her least favorite dingies. Kye got to be her best mate and fire aaaalllllll of the cannons). When the excitement died down and all that ended, though... the little fox woke up feeling like something just wasn't... right. Not to mention the brain sickness she had experienced at the purple unhappiness land was only getting worse. She had gotten sick at least twice a day for the past several days, the red blood water had been coming out of her nose at least once during the day and once during the night, she was constantly having her head bashed with big invisible rocks so hard that sometimes she couldn't even make herself move, and she would leave her body every now and then and fuzzily watch Kye and herself walking around outside from way up high or behind a rock. Oh, and sometimes more things than usual would float around her and rocks would explode. All normal brain flu symptoms that Merc was sure were standard despite only just now having them for the first time.

Her weird brain flu wasn't jack compared to what was really bothering her, though. No, the whole time she was more concerned that Kye seemed to be... not Kye. Not that he wasn't Kye! He was still super floofy and hug-able an he was still her best friend in the history of forever, but... the situation was just...

weird.

For once, Mercury had no words for it. Not that she hadn't had words for things before, but this was too important for Mercury to just ignore, or forget about as she typically would. This was Kye. There was some unspoken strangeness that just hadn't seemed to work itself out like Mercury had unconsciously expected them to, and it just kept bothering her. It made her feel low and heavy, like a rock under water. Was this...

THE SA- the uh, THE SD- the, the....THE SAD?

THE TERRIBLE S WORD???

Because of this, Mercury hadn't stopped being worried since she had woken up after their first day home. What if Kye was also having... THE S WORD??? She didn't want that, but she also didn't know what she could do. She was afraid to ask him about it; maybe he would hate her for having THE S WORD. She knew THE S WORD was a very sensitive subject, and that many friends were uncomfortable when she said or did anything remotely close to THE S WORD around them. She didn't want to scare Kye off, or worse, make him have more of THE S WORD!!! She became determined to save him; she HAD to stop Kye from having any more of THE SCARY, VILE, HORRIBLE, CORRUPTING S WORD!!! She had to figure out a way to make things right between them again. She wracked her brain for ideas on what Kye would like... games, obviously, but were games enough to combat the ssuughhahh? Food... but food was too obvious. Maybe... it was the place. Maybe they just had to find the right place to have food and games, and then he'd be happy...

AHA, of course! The fuzzy grass place with really slow shooting stars!! That place was super pretty; it was nice and slow and there was NOBODY who appreciated nice and slow things more than Kye. It would be perfect for him! She wondered if he'd ever been? Sharp intake of air, maybe it would even be his first time going there!!! That would be double perfect, he'd be waaaaay too amazed and excited to explore, and he'd forget everything about having the suueeeaaaaandals. It was perfect. Mercury immediately set to work, making a card for Kye to ask him if he would go to the place with her. Kye would never see it coming, except his bed was right next to hers and he could obviously see her working on something. But she sat with her back to him, so he didn't know what it was!!!

Luckily Mercury had an absolutely obscene amount of berries to draw with, although she had trouble drawing the whole field of fuzzy grass on the paper so she and Kye just ended up being a few toe prints against a massive landscape with stars and bigger floating stars. That was okay though. She signed the card with a message that read "Will u go see the slow stars with me?" put her pawprint on it, and slipped it onto his bed while he was off doing doing private Kye things.

How that went down:

The One - Yesterday at 4:04 PMAnd Kye's sitting here trying to read itthinking to himself"wtf is this"and Mercury's looking all expectant like"well?"and he's like"...yes?"FoxFireAlchemist - Yesterday at 4:05 PM"YAAAAAAAY WE'RE GONNA GO SIT AND EAT FOOD TOGETHER"(edited)The One - Yesterday at 4:06 PM"Oh that's what I agreed to?">sigh of reliefFoxFireAlchemist - Yesterday at 4:07 PM"Yeah you know like girls do with guys sometimes!"The One - Yesterday at 4:07 PM"are you"FoxFireAlchemist - Yesterday at 4:07 PM"Like when they like each other and wanna eat food together!""Pappa said he'd kill my guy before that ever happened but he's not here so I guess he was wrong! : D"The One - Yesterday at 4:09 PM"...""Do you even""Do you know what you're""...""ok"FoxFireAlchemist - Yesterday at 4:10 PM"We don't have to do the other stuff that they do I know you're tired and not feeling well so don't worry! Just food! :3"The One - Yesterday at 4:10 PM"what"FoxFireAlchemist - Yesterday at 4:11 PM"Just food?"The One - Yesterday at 4:11 PM"...yes"FoxFireAlchemist - Yesterday at 4:12 PM"Yeah! That's what I was saying too!"The One - Yesterday at 4:13 PM"You. Yeah. Let's go."

ANDSOTHEYWENTANDTHEYWEREGOING YE S S S S S

---

Mercury and Kye arrived on the scene with Mercury stuffed full of berries and other medicinal implements in a desperate attempt to cull her brain flu during the walk to get here that had unfortunately been much longer than Merc had remembered. She had also unfortunately forgotten how wet the fuzzy grass place was. And muddy. It was a sludge mud pit full of sticky, sticky goo that turned light and clumpy when it touched her fur. For the fire type, it was thoroughy unpleasant and made her face curl up a bit with disgust. But hey, the grass was fuzzy, just like she had said!! And tall. She had forgotten how tall it really was, actually. She watched it bend and sway in the breeze in awe as it towered over them in some places.

"Isn't it really soft and nice Kye??" Mercury exclaimed jovially as she hopped onto a patch, bending it down so he could touch it.

Mercury promptly learned that she could partially dry the sludgy mud out by setting the grass on fire, because she accidentally caught the grass on fire. She ignited it by being a fire type and laying on patch of grass that she promptly began rubbing her face on, getting her super-heated ears way too close to the fibrous stalks and scorching them dry until they caught flame. Granted, it didn't burn very long in the wet environment. But it was awesome.

She stood proudly on her newly-created mud cake and grinned at Kye. "Well, it'll be a while until the sun goes down, Kye! We've got lots of sandwiches though, so we can have a picnic now and a picnic later!" she reported happily. "What do you want to do until the sun leaves? Pick anything, you like; today's your day!!!" Her tail waggled happily behind her. "Don't worry Kye! We'll have so much fun it'll kill the seeesessaaaaeeuuh right out of you! And then maybe my brain flu will go away!! And..... I dunno, maybe ice cream will get invented. Nothing else would really make this better." she thought all to herself, secretly, while she waited.

"Oh, hi Kye," Mercury pipped in response to a question that hadn't even been directed at her. She relaxed and unfurled in the blink of an eye, looking up at her bestie with round, sparkly red eyes as if nothing had even happened. Everything from the past 10 minutes was just gone. Poof. Brain cell burned. No explosions, no PURPLE, just games, happy sandwiches and Kye. The hair on her back drifted back down into it's usual supple poof and her tail gave a happy little swish as it relaxed. She put her paws back out in front of her, becoming the image of content. With just a few simple words, Kye completely overwrote her short term memory and left only the ghosts of what had leaked into her subconscious. Why had she been nervous again? She still felt somewhat nervous, but she hadn't the foggiest idea of why. Maybe it was just the symptoms of brain flu. She lay there and stared at Kye expectantly as if they had been floating in peaceful silence the entire time, and now she suddenly expected him to come out with some profound Kye-ness.

The voice that answered Mercury was definitely not Kye.

Mercury swiveled her head around to see the source of the words that were not Kye's words and suddenly SWEET CHRISTMAS CRACKERS WAS THAT A FROGGY FRIEND?!?! A REAL- no we're not going through that again. Mercury managed to avoid nearly exploding a second time as her magical new-friend mind-blow was interrupted by her brain processing the new friend's talking. His words bounced around in her head a bunch, trying and failing to make some kind of sense in her marshmallow organ. They came after a greeting, but they sure didn't sound like any kind of greeting she had heard.Also, froggy friend had said one of the papa's naught no-no words. Yikes. What was so serious? What was so weird? The only things here were Kye, Mercury, and sandwiches. And a log, but a log was just a log.

...oh, was it Kye and Mercury that the froggy friend thought were weird? The small fox couldn’t imagine anything else that could possibly be weird. The only explanation was that the froggy friend’s daddy hadn’t had the talk with him like her papa had. Yes, that was the only explanation. Somebody would have to explain it to him! Mercury looked around for the proper authority figure to ask for help; a froggy daddy or a froggy mom... but that was hard because Merc knew that froggy parents didn’t have to be froggy at all. Also, there was no one else around. That could only mean... *gasp* Mercury herself was going to have to do it!!! She would explain to the froggy friend why this wasn’t weird at all and then everything would be fine. Froggy would understand and maybe go eat food with a special friend of his own, and the two small vulpy kids would be on their way!

“No, no no no, it’s not weird!” Mercury exclaimed, getting up and walking down the log a few steps to talk to froggy friend better. “It’s completely normal! Girls eat food with boys they like sometimes. It’s a special moment, you know? Kye is my bestest friend, and I’m- hum,” Mercury paused as she thought back to the purple death place and how Kye had been debating about how much friends he was with her, and she didn’t want to say the wrong thing and step on his toes again, “-well I’m sure there’s something he likes about me cause he came all the way out here with me!!! And when boys and girls like each other they go out together and they eat food and travel and sometimes do other things together! It’s not weird at all!” Mercury looked back at Kye with a certain look in her eye as she contemplated telling froggy friend about Kye’s condition. She turned back around and tiptoed closer to froggy friend so she could whispering into his ear. She wanted him to understand the absolutely crucial reason why this sandwich trip was so important, but she still didn’t want Kye to find out she was worried about him. She wanted him to think everything was fine still so he would relax and they could be happy.

”Well, uhm, also... my special friend Kye also has some problems...” Mercury fiddled her toe beans around together as she tried to work her words around this incredibly serious problem. It was clearly something that this small, impressionable fox child felt very uncomfortable and unsure about addressing, and she was sure to be extra quiet to make sure that Kye couldn’t hear how troubled this was making her. “He’s, uhm, he’s having an awful serious lot of the......... uh, the... the ‘BAD S WORD.’ And I don’t want him to have that, you know? I just don’t want him to have the ‘BAD S WORD’ anymore. It’s bad for him, you know? He’s very sensitive, and all of that ‘BAD S WORD’ he’s having is making him act different. I want him to feel good with me again, you know?.” And yes, she did whisper every single word of that clearly into the frog’s head.

Mercury stepped back and wagged her tail happily. “See? It’s not weird, it’s important! Kye is important to me, and we’re going to have a nice day together and everything will be fine!”

Normally, the next step in Goro's thought process would be to assume the little curled up ball of fluff was afraid of him and that was why it was acting that way. But this was obviously not the case either. It relaxed and unfurled, turning from a curled up grey and blue mess of fur into a little grey and blue fox - the two trespassers had matching fur colors. This would not help him at all with remembering their names, one of which was definitely Kye, because this little twat was suddenly talking and the name Kye was pouring out of her big stupid mouth every other second.

It occurred to him to reach out and close her loud, chattering face hole by force on several occasions during her explanation, but the sheer ridiculousness of the shit pouring out of her mouth stunned him into inactivity. Girls and boys and the things they do together, Kye this and Kye that. All he could do was draw back slightly and stare at the little fox incredulously. Was it socially retarded or just a smart ass? For her sake, she should hope it was the former. Broken hand or no, he was not going to tolerate another condescending vixen hanging around in his mystery dungeon and speaking to him that way. Nope, fuck no, not happening, the last time he failed to put a stop to that he wound up taking a trip to hell.

In the midst of her mouth diarrhea, the fox stole a glance at her friend and then scooted further down the log. Away from him. Toward Goro. Without realizing it, the croagunk leaned forward so the little fox could tell him her secret. She proceeded to whisper about her special friend and his problems. Particularly the... the bad S word. And how she didn't want him to have the bad S word anymore, how bad it was, and... feeling good. With her. God. What.

There was only one bad S word that came to his mind as she whispered to him and when she drew away from him in satisfaction, he drew away from her in shock, confusion, and disgust. This was not what he expected to deal with when he saw two fuzzballs floating by his house on a log. Goro looked back and forth between this stupid girl and this Kye over and over again as he attempted to process what he was just told.

The real question here was this: Did he give a shit what two ornery kids with no sense of propriety got up to in their free time?

Well, yeah, kinda. It didn't take a genius to see that this little fox girl was probably dropped on her head a few times as a baby. Maybe a couple times. Probably consistently often. To take advantage of someone like that, in that way... Despite the morally-questionable things that he got up to on a daily basis nowadays, even evil had standards. Plus they were like, in seeing and hearing distance from his front yard. Goro didn't want to hear that shit going on, much less see it. So.

The croagunk strode forward into the murky pond a few paces, coming right up to the log. He lost a little bit of height as he submerged himself into the water, but he still stood a good deal taller than both the foxes even on their floater. "Well there ain't gonna be none of that bad S word shit goin' on around here. Not around my house.

"You hear me, kid?" The poison type crossed his arms - taking great care with his broken left hand - and stared down the shiny eevee with naked disgust and judgment in his eyes. "Y'all can move right along with that. Don't let me hear you - or, legendaries forbid, catch you. Ugh. Gross."

(+1 energy 'cos new page so that makes 13 for the froggo)

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Cattail Marsh (Image not informed.) :

Of course the frog had to respond and try to sustain a conversation instead of just leaving, because something fortunate could never befall the likes of Velikye. At least the guy was more interested in talking than attacking, though, which was already more than the eevee could have hoped for. Mercury, of course, had found a way to be a catalyst for this conversation, so now she was what the frog was interested in. He wanted to know if she was... alright? Well, this was pretty normal for her, but it was weird. She was... very weird by nature. The situation seemed to be under control, but of course she had something to say about that when the frog started talking about her. Leave it to Mercury to completely misunderstand someone and go off on a delusional tangent about... what was she even talking about? She thought he was talking about the picnic he had no way of even knowing about? Or... that was what she meant, right?

Kye's ears drooped ever so slightly as the fennekin shifted the topic from food to... well, him? Specifically, how he felt about her, which she still seemed to be sensitive about. That was his fault, but there wasn't anything more he could do about it now than what he was already doing. More importantly, the semi-coherent ramblings of Mercury were devolving and she was running the risk of confusing their... guest. What "other things" was she even talking about?? Apparently something worth whispering about, because she suddenly decided whatever she had to say to this total stranger had to be kept a secret from her friend. Well, it wasn't as if he had earned friend privileges in the first place, so he couldn't complain... and he didn't really care. It was getting hard to worry about Mercury's idiocy after what she had just said. No, not the part about doing unspecified mystery things; Kye was hung up on the reminder that Mercury didn't even know what he liked about her, because he had made it look like the answer was nothing.

Velikye hung his head and stared down at the murky water as he tried not to listen in on the conversation. Mercury realized eevee had big ears, right? Not to mention she was on the same log as him. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to resist any faint desire to listen in, what with the presence of all-encompassing depression. Kye managed to zone out staring at his own reflection, almost forgetting where he was until an impurity in the mirror image caught his attention. A wave of ripples pulsed through the water, tearing through the reflection... and then another... then there was a shadow. It was a fitting analogy for his own self-compromising behavior, but it was also a very unhappy-looking frogman. Kye heard the voice, but it took him a moment to realize it was talking to him. His gaze jerked up from the frog's waistline sticking out of the water to its face as he realized he was being addressed, and he couldn't help but shudder the second he realized he was being threatened.

But why was he being threatened? He froze for a moment as the gears turned in his head, then it started to click. His gaze switched frantically to Mercury then back to the frog as he tried to piece together what she had said to him. "W-what? We're just looking for a nice spot to have a picnic! Mer-" he had to restrain himself from saying Mercury's name aloud. She wasn't bright enough to think not to use their real names around strangers, but he was. "We're not here to do anything wrong..." he continued, feeling increasingly defeated and struggling to find the slightest ounce of bravery to speak defiantly to this very aggressive-looking swamp guy. He honestly, genuinely just wanted to have a quiet day with his only friend and try to make up for mistreating her. Times like this, he wished he was someone brave and powerful so he could be... different. Alas, that wasn't him, but he could at least speak up for Mercury's sake.

We don't want trouble. We just want to see the lights, he rehearsed in his head before trying to say it out loud.

"We... I-I..."

His gaze fell back to the water and he locked eyes with himself once more. He couldn't do it. He was too afraid of being attacked for trying to speak. He felt like he should have been embarrassed in this situation, maybe even humiliated, but he was just afraid... for himself.

(Oh boy a whole extra one energy. Swiggity swog time to roll in the bog.)

As you may have guessed, Mercury was barely aware of the situation as it existed. Faaaaaar from it; her eyes only grew wide and sparkly as she perceived the croagunk's exasperation as a common kinship against the horrible, terrible, no-good s-word. In an instant, all of Mercury's faith was in this frog.

"*GASSSSP,* You hate the S-WORD too??! Oh, OH!! That's GREATnews!!" Mercury began to jump up and down with a deep enthusiasm. She hadn't come here expecting to find THE CURE TO ALL OF KYE'S PROBLEMS, but now here they were and here it was. Mercury could hardly contain the adrenaline coursing through her body. "Maybe you can help us then?? Do you know how to cure the S-WORD??? Can you make Kye better??? Ohboy!!!" She turned around, feeling super-extra proud of herself as she went to relay the super good news to Kye-

But she stopped.

Kye's face was the same regular Kye face, maybe even a little moreso. Not even a hint of happiness at their good fortune. Why? Mercury's face visually fell as she stared at him. The energy melted from her demeanor. What was wrong? How could she do better than finding the person who could fix his S??? She stared at him, her mind going blank as she desperately tried to rationalize the situation in her head.

Maybe he wanted her to do it.

Mercury blinked.

Maybe Kye just... wanted Mercury to fix things. Like they had come here to do. But Mercury wasn't very good at fixing things... but also, they were friends. Friends were supposed to be helping each other! What if... what if Kye thought she was just trying to pass his problem off to someone else because she didn't want to do it?!?! NO!!! THAT WASN'T TRUE!!! In an instant, Mercury's interests completely shifted. "Uh, well... nevermind, Kye. Maybe we should go. It's gonna get dark soon!"

"Excuse me..." a small voice squeaked to Goro's left while Mercury had her considerations. A small family of Lotad was approaching him there timidly; keeping juuuuust enough distance between them and him. One of the Lotads was sliiiightly closer than the rest were, identifying him as the speaker. He shook slightly in his place, betraying the nervousness he felt over being this close to a predator with his family. The other older Lotad also looked nervous, but the youngest of the bunch seemed tense like they didn't understand what was going on. One could easily deduce that this was a child.

The speaker Lotad cleared his throat, creating a pause within which he could work up his nerves enough to speak again. He clearly was unsure of himself around the rough-looking poison type, likely intimidated by his voice and the way that he spoke with such venom. "Y-yes, hello... I'm hope I'm not bothering you too much, but could you please keep your conversation down a bit? I don't... know what you're talking about, but I don't imagine it's very good for children's ears." He turned around to look at his kid behind him, and then looked back to the croagunk in a show of making his point. He looked back to the croagunk, clearly having grown a bit of confidence while talking. "If you would consider it, I'd appreciate it." He looked shocked afterword, as if he hadn't completely registered what he had done just yet.

Mercury took this as a good cue to usher herself and Kye out. "Well, uh, yeah, I'm causing trouble aren't I? I don't want to cause friends trouble. Sorry! I'll try harder next time!" She looked back at Kye again. " We probably go now. Don't wanna miss the floaty stars or anything!" Mercury jumped off the log to the driest point she could find. She tried to shoo Kye off with her, and began to walk around the Lotad family and away from the scene. It almost worked. It ALMOST WORKED. But of course, Mercury had to have an ability.

"Hey, my lunch!!" the younger Lotad cried out in distress as an item suddenly drifted out of it's hands and over towards Mercury.

"Oh no, fur; now's not a good time for keep-away!!!" Mercury mumbled as the item stuck itself to her. She tried to kick it off with her hind leg, but it wouldn't budge. She started to get frustrated. This was NO TIME to be good at KEEP-AWAY!!!

Mercury the Fennekin - 6 energy (one more roll for shits and wiggles)

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 6 launched of one Cattail Marsh (Image not informed.) :

Oh fuck. Now the little happy one was excited. She lit up like a beacon and was suddenly bouncing all over the log. It was concerning how the girl became happy at the revelation that he wouldn't tolerate any... s word. And how she asked him to help cure it, make her friend stop having the s word. It was kind of the exact opposite reaction that he had been expecting and hoping for. Ideally, the two shits would've gotten scared and run away. Never to return again, they'd leave the Marsh forever and tell all their little friends to never go there because of the big bad croagunk and then he could live his days in relative peace.

Goro sighed as the grey and blue one turned back to her friend, suddenly weary of the two already. He supposed he could just pick them up by the scruff of their necks and march them away. Well, no, actually, he only had one fucking good hand. Maybe he could pick up just one of them and the other would follow. They seemed relatively close, voluntarily spending time with one another and all that. He perked up though when the fox pokemon mentioned just leaving instead. Great! They would go do things that Goro would rather not think about, and he could spend some time watching the fireflies before going back to town. Everyone wins and no one has to get hurt. He loved happy endings.

But then they were interrupted by a family of lotads. Lotads. The croagunk turned, absolutely baffled. They were like right next to his house. The words pouring out of the speaking lotad's mouth went in one ear and right out the other as Goro was too busy processing the fact that there was like at least five people in his front yard. He didn't know these people, he didn't like these people, he usually spent ridiculous amounts of time and effort to ensure that nothing ever came near his house.

The poison type clenched his good fist and internally weighed the pros and cons of just earthquake-ing everything around him to hell. The pros would be that everything would either die or very clearly get the message that he did not want them here. The cons would be that he'd probably destroy his front yard, his house, and anything of value he had inside. He was pretty sure it was nothing but he didn't exactly have an eye for that kind of thing. In the end, he liked his home more than he liked corpses.

"Fuck off, you're trespassing on private property." Goro took a few big wet stomps toward the lotad, closing the distance that the coward put between them. He pointed with a big finger back toward the direction of his shack. The sudden frustration with the situation he felt at large was leaking through his voice resulting in a very vexed sounding croagunk. "I'll make all the noise I want in my territory. And you don't belong, so. Get. Lost.

"Also, fuck you, that's my lunch now." Goro glared at the child lotad whining about the thing that was just stolen from it. Honestly, that was pretty great timing because he was feeling hungry anyway. He hadn't looked to see what the little fox just stole, but if she had any protests about him claiming the food then he'd handle that too. He turned away from the family of lotads and stomped his way back onto dry land, properly pissed off. "Beat it, or I'll have all of you for lunch instead."

If not for his bad hand he'd probably have been swinging like hell by now. But he didn't want to hurt it any worse before it at least got looked at. Plus he didn't want to risk getting his bindle all wet - he just came back to get it. The last thing he wanted was for it to get dropped and spill his good shit everywhere.

As Mercury continued in her pursuit to cure "the S-word," Kye could do nothing but sit silently and watch, listen. Someone brave would have explained what Mercury meant, for the dignity and well-being of the both of them, but this eevee was a coward. Instead of trying to help diffuse the situation, he simply sat there, avoiding eye contact with the croagunk and hoping this would all somehow work itself out. He had never been so lucky before, but for once it seemed luck might actually have been in his favor as a trio of lotad made their way over to the scene. Well, it seemed they were here with the same concerns as the frog, but they were something else for him to focus on and that was all that mattered. Even Mercury seemed to gather that now was the perfect time to just... leave, urging Kye to follow her as she hopped off of the log. It took a moment for his body to unlock and let him move again, still overwhelmed with fear.

When Velikye's legs finally started working, he pursued Mercury and ran straight to her side... or at least... that was the plan. Then he heard one of the lotad cry out as its "lunch" was taken from it... by Mercury... Suddenly, after only a single step, before even making his way off the log, the eevee was paralyzed once more. This wasn't good. Everything was so close to working out fine, but then Mercury just had to go and be Mercury and somehow mess it all up. It wasn't her fault she couldn't control her ability, but... who else was Kye supposed to blame? No, blame didn't matter right now; all that mattered was figuring out how to quickly resolve this situation, then... actually doing it. That last part was always hard for him, as evidenced by his tendency to simply freeze up or lash out under stress, but he would have to try. It surely wouldn't be too hard to pry the item out of the fennekin's fur and apologize to the family of lotad, and it wasn't like a lotad was going to be a big threat in the first place, so everything was still fine.

...And then the croagunk said something that made the little eevee's heart sink. "That's my lunch now," the brute stated, and Kye suddenly felt ill.

Mercury couldn't control it. She couldn't just choose when something would stick to her and when it wouldn't. What would happen when the croagunk tried to take "his" lunch and was met with resistance? Would he be understanding of the fact that Mercury wasn't trying to keep it from him and simply couldn't control it? Based on his behavior thus far, that seemed doubtful, especially if she was the one doing the explaining. Velikye knew he needed to do something fast to make sure this didn't happen, but what was he supposed to do? He still couldn't even move, and he didn't even want to try to talk, leaving him with no options but to sit on the log and wait for something bad to happen. Yep, that was pretty much him in a nutshell. Based on his own past experience with himself, he figured the most likely outcome of this was that he would silently watch this guy attack Mercury over someone else's food... then run while he was distracted with her. The eevee's body would move just long enough for him to get out of sight so he could live to hate himself another day.

"Mercury, give it to him," came the sound of his voice, quiet but unusually firm.

Velikye was surprised to hear himself talking. It was almost as if someone else was doing it for him, but it was definitely him. Things were already deviating from what he'd predicted, and it was him choosing to make it so. Why? He was just drawing attention to himself in a situation that was already tense, knowing Mercury wouldn't be able to drop the item just because he was telling her to. He hoped she would, but control was a skill Mercury just didn't have, and he knew that...

The lotad father shrunk back in fear at Goro's foul attitude and crude language. This was clearly not a safe place for them to be around, and he was quick to mumble a quiet "I see, I'm sorry," before quickly turning around and ushering his family members away from the area. There was nothing he could do here, it seemed. He felt terrible for the other two young children being accosted by the brute, but there was nothing he could do about it. He would absolutely be risking his life and his family's life if he stayed any longer. He would, anyways. The seedless child wailed loudly as they left, but the father didn't stop leading them away for a moment. They seemed very eager to leave.

Meanwhile, Mercury could only half-hear Kye over her internal and external struggle to get the stupid seed out of her crusty fur. It had gotten stuck good!!! And that was bad!!! Mercury wanted nothing more than to get it out now; seeds were not meant to go in fur!!!! Mercury planted her butt down on the log as she struggled to puuuuuuush and paw at the seed with her hind leg, but there was nothing happening!!! A burst of hot air escaped her ears in frustration and she huffed in distress.

"The seed is big stuck, Kye!!! I can't get it off!!!" she exclaimed with great melancholy. At this point, the heat being produced by her panic had more than likely toasted the seed onto her fur, but the dumb little hairball had no concept of such logical things. "It won't leave me be... I'm not even trying to play keep-away right now!!! The seed just won't leave!!! I told you; I'm super good at games!!" Hidden inside that little humblebrag was the underlying message that, at the very least, Mercury understood that she could not help this. She couldn't un-stick the seed, she couldn't stop them from floating to her... She just couldn't!!! Internally, this posed her another dilemma: Kye wanted her to share the seed, but she couldn't. Kye wanted something from her, but she couldn't do it. She was failing him, directly.

Panic ensued.

She kicked her leg harder against the seed, yelping a bit as it tore at her fur. The air around her began to grow hotter. "I- I- I will share the seed, Kye!!! Don't be.... you know!!!" she wailed. Her brow furrowed while the coalescing anxiety in her chest turned her pupils into pinpricks. Another kick. Another yelp. Nasty burning wetness began to form in her eyes. She could see all her plans for this trip being stripped away... Everything she thought it would be, it wasn't. Everything she had hoped for was already absent. Just like the purple. She had done the purpleagain!!! This wouldn't save Kye from anything. She was loosing her chance.

The feelings that this began to envoke within her only made her panic more. Another kick. Another yelp. Fur was beginning to come up from her body. To her credit, though, the seed was looser.

"Oh no... oh no, I CAN'T be catching it!!!" she howled in devastation. "Who will save us if we [i]both have it?!?! I didn't- I don't want-!!!" The headache returned as the pressure built inside and outside of her body. It skewed her senses for a moment, making her bob and duck her head as the pain took over. It ebbed enough that she could raise her head back up, but the hysteria still remained behind the blanket of shock from the sudden onset of the affliction. A few of the now fattened blobs of burning liquid broke free and rolled down her face.

"I don't wanna go back..." Mercury nearly whispered as blurry memories of sounds and sensations flooded her mind. Where had she felt this feeling before...? Where had she been this sticky...? It was... familiar. I made her want to throw up. It made her want to run away. "I don't want to go back! I don't WANT to go BACK!!!I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK!!!" With one more panic-fueled kick, Mercury sent the fur-covered seed flying. It whizzed past Goro like a bullet, speeding into the bushed and pelleting some unknowing Volbeat as it glided towards the center of the Marsh. It began to totter around in delirium as the seed's effects took hold on it.

At the same time, another wave of pressure was released from Mercury's body. This one... wasn't explosive. It didn't bead up in the air like little dew drops and explode outward violently. Instead, an invisible force spread out like a veil and settled over all the bodies present. It could be felt by anyone around... and given the chance, the contents within it could easily coalesce within anyone's mind. As Mercury's rampant emotions poured out from her body, she calmed down. Physically. Internally, she was completely seized up in shock by the overwhelming flow of things she barely remembered back into her mind. Suddenly, she remembered she was running. Running from this. Running from this feeling.

"M-Mama... papa....."

And then she started running away. No clear direction, no destination. She was back to that moment... she wanted to get away.

-1 Totter Seed from inventory

Important note enclosed:

OOC: If Goro and/or Kye want to psyche up with Mercury, I imagine the experience would be like sharing a body and a mind with another person. Mercury's vision would be transparently overlayed over theirs, they would see out of her eyes and their eyes at once. On the inside, they'd be feeling a large amount of terror and sadness, like they both just failed and were about to die and also grief like they just experienced a huge loss of someone importantA short description of what their minds feel like would be helpful should ya'll wanna participate xD

Goro had been hoping to just scare the lotads away; they had no business here, and he wasn't hungry enough to eat all of them anyway. So when the oldest of them took its crying brat and the rest of its family off to wherever the fuck, he felt a thread of satisfaction. He still had it, even a month and a half after leaving the marsh... or however long it had been. The longest time he'd been away from home, at least, and he was still able to intimidate a bunch of losers. Hooray.

But then the weird little fox pokemon started mewling and freaking the hell out. Goro thought he even spotted a few wafts of steam rise up from wherever the fuck this fox was producing them, and at that the croagunk took a wary step back. He hadn't wanted to scare the foxes, really. These two were the most interesting thing he'd found on his trip back home. As crude as he was with them, he still kinda wanted to see what they could do. But this wasn't what he signed up for. Goro didn't do tantrums. Especially not freaky ass magic tantrums.

He stood there helplessly while she wailed and howled, and he actually jumped, visibly startled when the little shit kicked the seed so hard it went flying past his face. The croagunk took a few more healthy steps back, equal parts confused and unnerved. Why did all this weird shit happen around him?

A split-second later and he audibly grunted as an indiscernible something washed over him, curling around him and sinking in deep. His vision doubled, and for a moment he wondered if he'd grown eyes in the back of his head. Goro saw two different angles of everything in front of him, a second perspective mingling with his own. His stomach twisted and flopped, and suddenly he felt like he was reliving that same night he and his boss fought the monster in Pricklemist Hill. Except now the fear he felt was different, his frustration and anger twisting themselves into harsh grief and sorrow. He felt like he'd lost that night, like he failed his duty and almost lost his leader. It wasn't the same, though. This was bone-deep despair that was totally alien to him, much more intense than any terror he'd felt.

The confusion he felt at all of this felt like it was totally swallowed up in the whirlwind of negative emotions coursing through him, and Goro experienced the queerest urge to just... run. Following that, the second, hazy perspective that was haunting his own shot off like a bullet, and if it weren't for the wet soil Goro could feel his toes digging into, he would have sworn he had just taken off running. Cattail plants, bushes, and trees swept past him as he bolted away, fleeing for his life, but Goro was still standing there, confused and afraid. The curling in his stomach suddenly felt like it had nothing to do with the sudden emotional trauma he was going through, and Goro toppled backward onto his ass. His conflicting sight had caused him to lose his balance, he realized, and he felt lightheaded.

Helpless, he noticed he could still see one of the foxes next to him. The quiet, shiny, timid one - Kye. He had to know something about this. "What'd she just-" he cut himself off roughly, uncomfortable with how tremulous his tone was. He sounded afraid, his voice quivering. Goro cleared his throat with a rough sounding croak, shaking his head lightly before trying again, his voice slightly more stable. "What the hell did she just do to me?"

Goro had fallen prey to status moves before. Moves that messed with his head, made him feel lost or confused or even fall in love, but this was... different. This hurt in a different way, and he hated it immediately. He had to end it by any means necessary.